Internet reaction of the Apple's new tablet the iPad has featured many mocking remarks. Many say the device's name sounds like a feminine hygiene product.

Many in public say the device's name sounds like a feminine hygiene product

On Wednesday Apple aired its long
awaited tablet computer, which it dubbed the iPad.
Basically an oversized iPhone/iPod Touch, the new device hopes to
capitalize on the popularity of these smaller products, filling the
same niche as more traditional netbooks and UMPCs.

Some
Apple fans have indicated claimed the tablet will kill less
full-featured e-Book readers like the Amazon Kindle or recent Sony
Pocket Reader. If that's the case, these competitors sure
seem unusually nonchalant.

Sony, which actually competes with
the tablet in two arenas -- eReaders (Sony Reader series) and mobile
gaming (PSP
Go) -- says that it may actually get a boost from the iPad.

States Steve Haber, president of Sony’s Digital
Reading Division, "The introduction of another mobile device,
which includes digital reading as part of its functionality, is a
good thing for the digital book business. Mobile devices with
reading capabilities will play a key role in the paradigm shift from
analog to digital content. At Sony, we’re focused on devices
optimized for digital reading and believe that digital books sales
will surpass print sales within five years, if not
sooner."

Predicting the demise of print sales is
certainly a bold move, but not a terribly new one; Amazon and Sony
have been trumpeting that line for some time now. The more
interesting tidbit is that Sony actually thinks the increased
attention about tablets and digital books surrounding the iPhone will
actually help Sony's sales.

Sony certainly has a lot of
business savvy in the field of digital books. It is second only
to Amazon in this arena, and it is estimated to own 35 percent of the
market, selling an estimated 1 million units in 2009.

One
advantage it has over its new Apple competitor is perhaps a less
obtrusive name; since its announcement the iPad has been lampooned by
many readers who say it sounds like a feminine hygiene product.
Describes
Annie Colbert on the blog "Holy Kaw!", "With "iTampon"
quickly emerging as a trending Twitter topic, it's probably safe to
say that many women found themselves cringing as they asked, 'Do any
women work at Apple?'"

Ironically, the new Apple
wonder-product shares its name with a fictional device devised in a
MadTV skit -- an Apple feminine hygiene device called the iPad.
Writes "Dontstealmypen" a
particularly prolific Twitter, "Will women send their
husbands to the Apple store to buy iPads?" and "The
iPad—Another embarrassing topic I get to discuss with my kids."

Comments

Threshold

Username

Password

remember me

This article is over a month old, voting and posting comments is disabled

In Apple's defense, Steve Jobs praised the Kindle and said that Apple was standing on the Kindle's shoulders. In other words, Apple knows that they didn't invent or even popularize the e-book market. They just want to cash in on it. Portable music is another story... Apple did popularize that market with the ipod.

You also have to keep in mind that companies steel plenty from Apple as well. Amazon launched their own e-music store a few years back (as did many others) to try and cash in on the portable music market that Apple popularized. Microsoft (and others) created portable music/video devices to try and cash in on markets that Apple popularized. Windows 7 is a blatant homage to Mac OS X (or was "inspired" by OS X as stated by Microsoft Manager Simon Aldous) and Microsoft's touch/gesture tablets/tables are trying to cash in on Apple's multi-touch innovations.

You can bang Apple for "stealing" here, but plenty of companies stand on the shoulder of other company's innovations. If you don't see where Apple has innovated then you are blind with either jealously, ignorance or misinformation. Criticize their pricing model or their lack of state-of-the-art graphics cards or lack of customization, but innovation = Apple my friend.

Apple USED to be innovative. They use to be the pioneers. But now, they are simply playing catch up.

1) They weren't the first to come out with LED backlit laptops and monitors.2) They weren't the first (and still aren't) to come out with Blu ray computers.3) They weren't the first to even announce a tablet. Although, in their defense, this is just a big ol' iPod Touch:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MI99t9k4aEE

I would respectively disagree with the charge that Apple is no longer innovative. Lets keep it simple by focusing solely on the iPad. Apple's iPad screen is a backlit LED with IPS and many thousand touch sensitive elements. It was no easy feat to create this. The iPad is also only 1.5 lbs and 0.5 inches thick. That's also quite a feat for a device with a 10" display. Apple's prowess with battery and power management technologies have allowed them to offer 10 hours of video playback at 1024x768. The iPad features Apple's home-brewed A4 system-on-a-chip processor, which is largely responsible for the capabilities that Apple is offering with the iPad (including high res gaming & SD and HD video, iWork application suite, etc). Looking beyond hardware, there is also innovation in their software; although this is more subjective and debatable. I personally believe the simplicity and capabilities Apple brings to bear with multi-touch is innovation as well. It's also pretty neat that they developed a custom iWork suite to bring more capabilities to the iPad.

I have to agree with Steve Jobs that a netbook excels at only one thing... being cheap. It's a painful computing experience.

Having said all of this... I am not planning to buy one. I don't need a product that fits between my 15" MacBook Pro and my iPod Touch (or my wife's iPhone).

Dual core processor, real graphics, decent RAM, decent HDD, n wireless and bluetooth, HDMI, memory card readers. It's the perfect netbook. It's battery life may not be all that impressive, but its surface area is roughly the size of a piece of paper. And it only weighs around 3 lbs.

The thing is, it is true that there are netbooks with a painful computer experience, but at least it HAS a computing experience. At least you can watch YouTube and work on a presentation at the same time. At least you can listen to music on the web and chat on facebook at the same time.

Jobs was in the perfect position to take aim at netbooks and demolish them. Instead, we get a big ol' iPod Touch. And what makes it worse? He did it on purpose, just like he did with the iPhone. When the iPhone came out, it didn't act remotely like a decent cellphone should. No picture or video messaging? No flash support (still)? No multitasking (still)? No video recording? No microSD slot (still)? No copy and paste? No video editing?

But using this strategy, he nabs a decent number of idiots to buy this thing, and come a year later, comes out with a better product, leaves the first adopters to wallow in their stupidity, and creates a storm in marketing. Businesses flourish on the stupidity of consumers.

"it didn't act remotely like a decent cellphone should. No picture or video messaging? No flash support (still)? No multitasking (still)? No video recording? No microSD slot (still)? No copy and paste? No video editing?"

First of all, the iPhone has picture messaging now. As for cut-and-paste, that's the LEAST of my priorities. Whether you want to admit it or not, the iPhone revolutionized the cell phone interface. It was the first phone that I actually used more than 10% of the features on it, because they weren't buried 20 levels deep in obtuse menu systems.

I prefer my new Android now. But the fact remains that Apple is owed the credit for showing us what more a cell phone could be.

Wii comes to mind. How about the various wireless mice that had accelerometers in them since 2003? The mice didn't catch on, but nonetheless, they were mass marketed and widely available at even brick and mortar stores....

I'll give you the multitouch, but even the 'app' store is a stretch....How long as Steam been around? 7 years now?

napster revolutionized the MP3 craze, and the original encoder was done by LAME, thats when saw the demand and apple was trying to push i believe it was aac or something like that then realized that it couldnt get it pushed through and adopted MP3, the only real thing i see apple has innovated was the ipod i must admit that was a great invention...but pretty much everything else they steal and try to reinvent and sometimes do it very well at first(apple has a great PR dept the lies and manipulates peoples minds to believe in their self proclaimed greatness look at READER 1.........this new ipad is just stolen ideas which were first seen with the one laptop per child program http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8428147.stm

quote: Criticize their pricing model or their lack of state-of-the-art graphics cards or lack of customization, but innovation = Apple my friend.

Not innovation, far from it... when was the last time they did something truly new and unique ? Actually I think it's great marketing with a clear demographic: the hip/trendy and the posers with more money than sense

A tablet is something you have to hold in front of you, or bend over a desk to read, a netbook opens up and the screen is already facing you. Why is it that something that is less functional (iPad) is being marketed as something better?

No, an iPad-buyer is someone that Apple holds in front of it and bends over a desk. It also opens up your wallet and takes your money while facing you, convincing you how unique and special you are for undergoing the experience.

B) Why do you think ths current evolution of the tablet (which admitedly more are sure to follow if it sells well for Apple) will in any way replace a netbook? Netbooks have more functionality and are a more comfortable and naturaly useable form factor for any kind of acutal work. having your screen level with your typing surface is a terrible idea to try and use it like that for any extended period of time.

A) Tablets with Windows on them failed. Tablets need software specifically designed for tablet input. The iPad is the first to do that.

B) People who are buying netbooks for productivity, will choose the upcoming thin-and-light laptops. People who are using netbooks for viewing, will choose tablets. The netbook has no future; they're a fad. Even ASUS has stated they see no future for netbooks.

"Nowadays, security guys break the Mac every single day. Every single day, they come out with a total exploit, your machine can be taken over totally. I dare anybody to do that once a month on the Windows machine." -- Bill Gates